Prelude to the big show

Today was just about as big a day as when Mr. Snufaluffagus was seen by all the characters on Sesame Street for the first time and everyone realized Big Bird had been telling the truth all these years. There is a mythical beast, just mine is known as Ironman Australia. With our focus for the last 51 weeks been training, training and more training, that tap on the shoulder today really hit home. It's here, I've done what I can, nothing else can help, just the rest and relaxation over the coming week to get me ready.

In a couple of days we will be driving down to Port Macquarie to get settled and take in the atmosphere of IMA. I plan is to take it all in and enjoy. The sacrifices made by me and my family give me the need to ensure not a moment is missed.

No more 4am training sessions. No more going to bed at 8:30 because I have to get up at some god for saken time. No more "sorry I can't I'm training". The hard work has been done and the day is all about doing the best I can on the day, no matter what is thrown at me. If I'm the last out of the water, who cares. If I get a flat, sure I'll be pissed, but I'll be calm, and will change it and get on with the ride.

What have I done in the past year?

I've dropped 10kgs
Fiji Feb 08
Geelong Feb 09

I've graduated from lane 8 in the squad swims to lane 5. This is a big one for me. I can actually swim now. Not fast, but steady.

I've finally broken 6 hours at the half ironman distance.

I've swam in the last year, distances measured in the 100's of Kms
I've cycled over 10,000kms. This was a strange one. Our car just turned over 20,000 almost the same time as my bike went over the 10,000km mark.
I've ran over 1,000kms.

Hundreds of hours training filled with soul searching, excitement, disappointment, happiness.... and so it begins. The latest issue of Triathlete came out (yet to get my copy) has a list of all competitors and a big writeup on the race.

The only glitch so far was today, while putting my bike on the roof rack I noticed I had a cracked wheel.....not good. A look at what it would take to replace it, and not good. Through a chat area, I found out that to replace the wheels I have is about $900. Race wheels are $1,250. You know where this is headed don't you. I'm hoping to find out if there is some type of warranty on them, but at 10,000kms, I don't think I have much hope in this one. It doesn't hurt to try though.

A BIG BIG thank you goes to my kids and my beautiful wife for the fantastic support over the last year, the long hours away from you all and for letting me focus on my training. I won't dissappoint you come race day.

For those of you not down at IMA, you can follow me at www.ironmanlive.com . I won't be with the pro's and will most likely require a glow stick to finish the race, but you can use this as a way to track althetes, and watch live streaming video of the race. You can even watch all the finishers come accross the line.

To take it all in, I'm hoping to update you all with small posts Wednesday through to Saturday while down at Port. If you would like to know how things are going, send me an e-mail with your mobile number and Colleen can send you an update during the race if you want.

Thanks for all the well wishes and support, it's really helped and I'm keeping a few of those in reserve just in case I need to call on them later in the race.

Cheers and talk soon.

Oh ya, the leg....much better, but not 100% I'm calling it 85% which will be enough for me.

Richard

The week of "lasts" for IMA competitor 448

Another week down, two to go.....I've continued this week with more physio and massage to try and get my leg healthy, but it seems to be going much slower than I want it to. Grrr!! It's coming along well, but I've been told no more hills....you know what, that's fine with me as I have none in my program.

This week was a bit of fun, last hill workout on the bike, last hill workout running, last long ride. (note: long ride is something over 3.5 hours). With any "last" it was as good a time as any to sit down afterward and have a coffee and reflect on what we've done thus far. Many a BS session was had and a few good laughs too. I've enjoyed things to date, but the real one that caught me off guard was today I received my last program. That was really hard to accept. How can this be? I've become the perpetual trainer, why would I have a race? Not just any race, THE RACE. What does this all mean? I actually have to step up to the start line in two weeks and see how things go.

Well on this note, I used today to go and pick up my race day attire, 2XU ironman triathlon gear. As the name implies, it's designed for idiots like me who want to put their body through hell, all to hear their name called at the end....."you are an Ironman!!".

Looking around the group, we all seem to be doing well, a few niggles here and there, but nothing that seems to be keeping us from starting the race fairly healthy. Some people are looking for specific times during the race, some are out to complete the race and then there are some who have a time in mind but don't want to let it be known.

I really think the group has done a great job thus far, encouraging each other and checking in with others if things don't seem to be going well. I've really enjoyed training with this group of friends and it will be a different feeling once we've done the race. This is in part I think we've spent more time as a group than we have with our families...I think we've all had a few good dummy spits along the way, some better than others. Right now though, I think the best has to be going to Jeff for his dummy spit with his bike computer.....

So where do we go from here? Well, 14 days to go until race day, 10 days until we leave for Port MacQuarie.

So far this month, it's looked like this:

Mileage Totals:

Cycling: 970 km

Running: 80.50 km

Pilates: 0 m

Swimming: 25 km

Time Totals:

Cycling: 36:20

Running: 8:34

Pilates: 1:00

Swimming: 9:07

Just for shits and giggles since January, I've rode nearly 3,000kms, I've swam just under 100kms and I've ran about 450kms. No wonder I've been tired....

This week I'm hoping the taper actually feels good, because after last week's efforts, I could use it. All last week, I was constantly tired, so maybe, just maybe, I'll start feeling human again this week.

That's about it for now, so hope to catch some of you either on Skype/Facebook/or at training before heading out to Port Marquarie. I will be sending some links for those of you who want to follow the race, but I'll save that for another day.

Cheers
Richard

FINALLY.....taper and physio :-(

49 weeks ago, I decided to do an Ironman. Now with 3 weeks to go, I'm into taper. If I look back at when I started, what I'm doing now, I would have shaken my head at. Case in point. Today was only a 5 hour ride. Only.....150kms...why the hell didn't I take the car? That's the difference I guess.

The last week of intense training was full of surprises. I got to try water running (not that I wanted to), I did my first cover grab and roll and that's the start of things.

Monday I went into to physio for my left leg. After two times of running with pain, I finally went to physio. It seems the muscle and tendons that you use to pull your toes up was inflamed and in a bit of strife. After two sessions of physio last week, it seems like my leg is responding well to the treatment. So the training schedule was adjusted and in came the water running. God does that suck!!! It was a necessary evil, but I would only recommend it unless your options are very limited. I mean very limited.....With any luck I should be 85% or better come race day.

For those anatomy people out there, it's the Peroneus brevis muscle as shown below...


Wednesday was another long ride out to Mount Coot-tha and around....5 times. When the alarm went off at 3:40am I hit the button to stop the beeping...quiet...but no, what's that? It was pouring rain! I found the covers grabbed them and rolled over and went back to sleep.



For the month thus far:

Mileage Totals:

Cycling: 730 km

Running: 63 km

Pilates: 0 m

Swimming: 16.20 km

Time Totals:

Cycling: 27:00

Running: 6:34

Pilates: 1:00

Swimming: 6:00

Now the questions start to come out...

Have I trained enough???? Too late to think about that
Am I ready? Too late, the race is coming whether I want it to or not.
Why? Who the hell knows, it seemed like a good idea at the time... I must have been drunk ;-)
What's next? Gold medal training for the couch potato Olympics.

Honestly though, I have really come a long way in the past year, even in the past few months of training. My swimming feels comfortable, I confident about riding 180kms and who knows, if things go well, possibly a marathon PB? Okay, a long shot, but you have to dream....

Back into reality, even though we're in taper, the intensity is up, just the volume is on the way down. Before you know it, the car will be packed and we'll be off to Port Macquarie.

There's some new videos on the BTS IMA Channel, so have a look.

Stay tuned folks, it's going to get good.

Cheers
Richard

and then there was only 4...weeks

It truly is an emotional roller coaster with all this training. One minute, you're doing fine, the next you're down in the gutter.

This past week was a pretty good one, with some serious miles put in. Looking back, there was a 3km running time trial, 2 big sessions in the pool and over 500km's on the bike. The big challenge was the 200km bike ride Saturday which was I was using as a measuring tool..Do well on the ride, another tick....have a bad ride, and I wouldn't be looking forward to the bike/run at Ironman.

Well, the ride was a one way ride out to Mooloolaba from Brisbane, going through the mountains. 3 main climbs and a number of rollers. My focus was to ride it at a consistent pace and to ensure my nutrition was a main focus. So I took:

8 Gels
2 Nutella sandwiches (on white bread without crusts)
2 breakfast bars
1 rice crispy bar
a bag of snakes (candies)
6 bottles of sports drink

Well I ate it all...yes I'm a pig and proud of it.

I started off well and kept a constant pace. When I got to mount Mee, I kept a steady pace and made it up feeling good. Then it was a constant roll through to Peachester where I went up the next hill with the same effort. Got to the top, all good...

Now the big hill... a 4km climb of a 10% grade. I could really feel it and just kept the legs turning over...The worst part was a good 1.6km section straight up. You could see the long hill and it was relentless. Everytime you looked up, there it was, still in your face. Head down, keep pedaling. Everytime I looked up, it's was still there. Consitency was the name of the game. It was hurting but I kept going. When I got to the top, I'd done it, now a quick turn in to the aid stop and I was off again. My only hope was I hadn't pushed to hard going up the hill. As I kept going, Mooloolaba was getting closer. The top of the range was fun with a 10% and a 12% grade hill to tackle which I did. Into Mapelton and a sharp down hill to get us closer to the finish. Once I was down the hill, I knew I'd be okay going into the home stretch. So much so, I started singing. Don't worry, I won't start a singing career, but I was very happy to have a solid ride which would give me more ammunition for IMA.

For shits and giggles, here's the elevation profile.

Brisbane to Mooloolaba ride

Sunday was another "easy" ride of 100km which felt okay, but the legs were tired. I made it though, and am just a 70 minute run away from being done for the week. Going into the final major week before taper, I'm feeling pretty good. Just make it through that and things will be "fine tuning" for IMA.

Well here's the month so far:

Mileage Totals:

Cycling: 545 km

Running: 32 km

Pilates: 0 m

Swimming: 6 km

Time Totals:

Cycling: 20:50

Running: 3:24

Pilates: 0:30

Swimming: 3:15

I well deserve "morning off" on Monday and back at it again.

All the above made me forget about my dummy spit on Thursday morning which was my long hilly run in Mnt Coot-tha. That was no fun at all. About half way through, I had nothing left. Everytime I tried to call on my legs to get me up the hills, there was nothing there. This did not go well and there was a few choice words said and a couple of gestures to the hill and I made it through. The rest of the day was not good but did end up on a good note, with a solid swim. Enough so, it picked me up for the weekend.

That's about it for now, hopefully the IMA channel will have a few more posts this week so check back from time to time.

Cheers
Richard

Time for focus and determination

Time now for the next two weeks (start of our taper) is all about focus and consistency. As it was stated so well the other day in our e-mail to the group from Mark (our coach)...two more weeks of intense training, then we start our taper at which time we will start to feel human again........Couldn't have said it better myself.

This past week started off a bit shaky, but I did make a turn around. Actually, as Garfield the cat says it. "I hate Mondays". It really is true, you come off the great feeling on Sunday afternoon of making it through a hard week of training, only to come back to earth on Monday when you realize, there's another hard week in front of you. Arg!!

After a dummy spit, I sucked it up on Tuesday morning at running where I picked up where I had left off (actually I did do a core and run workout Monday night but I was still in a funk). A bunch of other swims, rides and runs, core and another week has passed. I guess one of the big things for me this weekend was an open water swim here south of Brisbane on Saturday afternoon, where I met up with a few of the ironman group. It turned out pretty good as I actually did an open water swim without my wetsuit!!! I guess I've started my journey on the 12 step program now to ridding myself of my neoprene addiction..

Today was another long ride which was tough...Actually it was the "Daz factor". Daz is one of the IMA group who is a machine on the bike, today was no different. It seemed for the first 2 hours we were cruzing along at a much higher speed than normal. I guess it did help us but man am I tired.

My month was very good, with almost every session completed. Once I got on board again after a couple of days off after Geelong, I've been going hard ever since. Here's what February looked like:

Monthly Distances:

Cycling: 896 km

Swimming: 28.50 km

Running: 127.30 km

Pilates: 0 m

Monthly Times:

Cycling: 34:0-10

Swimming: 11:22

Running: 13:27

Pilates: 2:30

Wow, when you tally that up, that's about 61.5 hours last month or on average, 15+ hours a week of training...YIKES!

Just two more weeks to go then taper...Here's hoping I can keep things up.
Cheers and take it easy out there.

Richard